ET-112

2 credit(s)

Course Chair: Allan Chase

Semesters Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer

Required of: All

Electable by: All

Prerequisites: ET-111

Department Code: EAR

Students further develop basic ear training skills through performance and dictation and study melodies, intervals, harmony, and solfege in minor keys, as well as more advanced rhythms, meters, conducting patterns, and notation.

ET-211

2 credit(s)

Course Chair: Allan Chase

Semesters Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer

Required of: All students not taking ET-231

Electable by: All

Prerequisites: ET-112

Department Code: EAR

Development of ear training skills through performance and dictation. Study of melodies, intervals, harmony, and solfege in Lydian, Mixolydian, Dorian, and Phrygian modes, mixed modes, and harmonic and melodic minor. Continued study of rhythms, meters, conducting patterns, and notation.

ET-321

2 credit(s)

Course Chair: Allan Chase

Semesters Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer

Required of: None

Electable by: All

Prerequisites: ET-112

Department Code: EAR

This course focuses on a variety of rhythmic patterns, percussive ostinatos, and melodic repertoire from around the world, with an emphasis on African, Caribbean, and South American traditional and popular music, as well as South Indian classical, Balkan, and Middle Eastern genres. In-class activity includes vocalization and rhythmic externalization exercises based on particular musical examples, general listening and aural analysis, and transcription of selected elements of a musical texture. Students examine music from the perspective of musical cognition, including the potential impact of cultural background on the formation of one's mental representation and the analysis of ambiguous musical structures. Homework assignments entail full or partial transcriptions of rhythmic and melodic elements, as well as exercises involving melodic solfege and rhythmic recitation designed to enhance a student's internal sense of time, pitch, and physical independence through singing or speaking of melody and rhythm in the context of its underlying essential metrical structure.

ET-331

2 credit(s)

Course Chair: Allan Chase

Semesters Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer

Required of: None

Electable by: All

Prerequisites: HR-112 and ET-112

Department Code: EAR

This course will work within the limited scope of progressions including simple root position diatonic harmony, inversions, secondary and extended dominants, II-V patterns, and passing diminished chords. Chord voicings containing one tension will also be covered. This course will include several activiites that address application to real music situations.

ET-332

2 credit(s)

Course Chair: Allan Chase

Semesters Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer

Required of: None

Electable by: All

Prerequisites: ET-331

Department Code: EAR

This course is a continuation of ET-331. Chord progressions will be more intermediate to complex in nature. The concepts of modal interchange harmony, substitute dominants, and modulation will be introduced. Voicings containing multiple tensions and upper structure triads will also be covered. More extensive transcription work of real music will be incorporated.

ET-341

2 credit(s)

Course Chair: Allan Chase

Semesters Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer

Required of: None

Electable by: All

Prerequisites: ET-112

Department Code: EAR

Touching on a variety of contemporary styles such as pop/R&B, jazz, fusion, Latin music, and classical genres as resources for weekly in-class analysis, transcription, and solfege exercises, this course enhances theoretical understanding, aural perception, and performance of rhythm in music. Emphasis is placed on accurate and meaningful interpretation and notation of a piece's rhythmic components, e.g., polyrhythmic percussion grooves, syncopated melodic lines, characteristic comping patterns, or large-scale harmonic rhythms. Furthermore, the cognitive process involved in the construction of a resultant metrical perspective will be discussed. Sight-reading and general rhythmic comprehension are challenged through a series of exercises and drills featuring odd-time patterns and polyrhythmic independence between the voice and the body, as well as advanced studies of mixed subdivisions. The intent is to strengthen internal coordination of multiple rhythmic voices, as well as sharpen one's precision and clarity when performing.

In this course, students will strengthen their command of rhythm and tonal, modal, and chromatic melody and harmony through singing, movement, recognition, dictation, and transcription. They will survey and experience a variety of ear training techniques and practices drawn from a variety of traditions, including Western classical music, jazz and blues, and West African and Indian musical cultures. Students will explore applications of ear training skills to vocal and instrumental performance including improvisation, interpretation, ensemble rehearsal, and music teaching. Each week's classes will include singing and dictation practice, rhythmic performance and movement, guided dictation and recognition activities, and discussion of methods, problems and solutions. Notated and recorded music examples used in class will come from a variety of styles, genres, cultures, and eras. Students complete ten singing and rhythm performance practice assignments, ten online and CD dictation and recognition practice assignments, two transcription projects, and two multitrack home recording projects.

ET-P461

2 credit(s)

Course Chair: Allan Chase

Semesters Offered: Fall, Spring

Required of: None

Electable by: All

Prerequisites: ET-212 and HR-211

Department Code: EAR

Traditional modes will briefly be reviewed and the basic techniques of practice and performance will be learned. Students will then learn and perform nontraditional/hybrid modes. Examples of modes (please note that each example has alternate names) to be studied include Hungarian Major, Spanish Phrygian, Octatonic, Arabic, Whole Tone, Hindu, Super Locrian, Lydian b7, Japanese, and Hungarian Minor.